More than seven months after a cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of controversial Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was upped from $15 million to $25 million, the offer still stands.
The U.S. State Department says Maduro, 62, not only fraudulently declared himself the winner of Venezuela’s “deeply flawed” 2018 presidential election, but he also helped manage “and ultimately lead” the Cartel of the Suns – a drug trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials.
In the next election, which took place last year, the State Department says Maduro again fraudulently declared himself the winner “despite evidence to the contrary.”
It should be noted that the United States has not recognized Maduro as the President of Venezuela since 2019. The U.S., like many other countries, also refused to recognize Maduro as the 2024 election winner; on July 28, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement standing in solidarity with the Venezuelan people “one year after yet another sham election.”
“Maduro is not the President of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government,” Rubio said.
Despite this claim, the disputed president held a celebration on the 28th honoring the one-year anniversary of his controversial re-election and the birthday of his late predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Maduro, who started his life as a bus driver before becoming a union activist, has effectively ruled Venezuela by decree since 2015 and is widely considered to be a dictator.
Describing Maduro’s illicit drug-related activity, federal officials say he participated in a “corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy” with FARC – the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – which has been designated as a terrorist group. Cartel of the Suns was also sanctioned as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of the Treasury at the end of July.
“Maduro negotiated multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine, directed the Cartel of the Suns to provide military-grade weapons to FARC, coordinated with narcotics traffickers in Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking,” the State Department and Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs explain in a wanted poster for Maduro. “He solicited assistance from FARC leadership in training an unsanctioned militia group that functioned, in essence, as an armed forces unit for the Cartel of the Suns.”
The Venezuelan leader was federally charged in March 2020 in the Southern District of New York for narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. A total of 14 other high-ranking officials were also charged with “us[ing] cocaine as a weapon to ‘flood’ the United States,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Anyone with information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of Nicolás Maduro Moros (not to be confused with his son Nicolás “Nicolásito” Maduro Guerra, who was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2019) should contact the local DEA office in their area.
Those who are outside of the U.S. should contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.
There are several other high-ranking outstanding Venezuelan officials with cash rewards of $5 million, $10 million, $15 million and $25 million being offered by the federal government for information that could lead to their arrests and convictions. Click here to view them.
The post $25 million reward still stands for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared first on KTLA.
